How to Make Rhubarb Wine at Home

In the last couple of years, we have made a lot of wine at home. It’s easy to do, and is good, cheap fun. Yes, we have had a few flops (still need to dump a few bottles of dandelion wine that are in the basement) but many of them have been pretty darn good (especially elderberry wine!) Our most successful country wine of 2013 was definitely a batch of Rhubarb Wine that Jeff made, following these instructions. It yielded a beautiful rosé that we and our summer guests thoroughly enjoyed. We were excited for rhubarb season to come, since we had polished off the last of it a couple of months ago. A lot of the recipes Jeff followed ended up with really strong, really sweet wines that were more in the dessert wine category– but not this one! We felt that it really competed with the bottles of rosé we were lugging back from France whenever we got the chance to drive across the channel. You should definitely try it!

How to Make Rhubarb Wine

What You’ll Need

1.5kg (3.5 lb) rhubarb

1.3kg (just under 3 lb) sugar– we like to use organic sugar or sucanat

1. Chop the rhubarb stalk into thin slices, about 1/4 inch thick.2. Put the chopped rhubarb into your (sterilized) fermentation bucket, and add the sugar and mix it together. Put the lid on your container and leave it for three days.3. Pound the pulp up a bit with a clean wine bottle or potato masher, then stir in three liters (a generous 3 quarts) of boiled but cooled water. Strain the pulp through a clean mesh strainer of piece of muslin into another clean bucket, add the grape juice concentrate and make it up to 4.5 litres (a generous 4.5 quarts) with more water. Add the yeast nutrient and sprinkle the yeast on top.

Cover this up with the lid, and leave for a week.

4. Using a funnel or a siphon hose, pour into a sterilized demijohn and add an airlock, leaving any dregs behind.5. After about a month, “rack” the rhubarb wine by siphoning into another sterilized demijohn. Replace the airlock.

6. You may choose to rack again in a few weeks, to further clarify your wine. The picture below is where we’re at, one month into fermentation. The flavor is developing nicely, but we’d like it to clear some more before we bottle it.7. When you’re happy with the clarity and there is no more fermentation happening (watch the airlocks for bubbles for a couple of minutes) then you are ready to siphon your rhubarb wine into sterilized bottles. It will be ready to enjoy right away, but waiting will make it better.

Enjoy!

I am already enjoying a glass as I type this up– it’s incredibly gratifying to make good drinks with things that either grew in your own garden or nearby. And, of course, at a fraction of the price. Cheers!

P.S. If you have kids who feel left out of the the home brewing action, you should definitely make up a batch of Rhubarb Soda with them!

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My parents always made dandelion wine. The thing with dandelion wine is that people try to drink it too soon. Dandelion wine gets much better with age. I’ve got a bottle of it that my parents made about 15 years ago. When they first made it, it tased very bitter. But with sitting in the fruit cellar for 15 years the dandelion wine is now a warm, smooth, sweet wine. Let it sit and then try it in a couple of years from now. It will keep getting better year after year.

It’s getting close to a year old now, and we keep tasting it. Still bad. I’ve added sugar, but it just tastes weird– kind of like tropical punch kool-aid, in a bad way! I think I’ll see what happens when I turn some into vinegar.

Hi Sue. I don’t think fermentation is stuck. It’s just slowing down, and that’s normal. There is a lot of variability in terms of speed– for example, if your home is warm, it will go faster, and then die down more quickly. One way I check is to have a little taste and see how sweet it is– if it’s still a bit sweet, then I know there’s a lot more fermenting to do, as there is still sugar to metabolize. I’d give it a couple more weeks, rack it, and wait longer. The wine goes through a lot of different stages in terms of taste, so don’t worry if you don’t like the flavor yet or even in two weeks. Hang tight and see where it goes.

I am so happy to have come across this post today!!! What a great way to start the day I have so much rhubarb that I’m always looking for a use for, and I love wine, and even more, I LOVE fermenting–so much so, that I have a heath and wellness blog (that I started back in January) and have a section dedicated to fermenting food (www.modernhippiehousewife.com). You make making wine sound so easy! Thanks so much! I

Hi Carly, so glad you found this post, and that you can make some wine with all of that rhubarb! There are a lot more technical wine making blogs out there, but I think that can be really intimidating. I love just trying all of these projects, and find that they turn out well more often than not, even with a more laid-back approach. Hope your wine turns out great!

I’m a bit confused. Sorry new at this. I’m stuck at: add the grape juice concentrate and make it up to 4.5 litres (a generous 4.5 quarts) with more water.. so how much grape juice concentrate to water. Also where did everyone find demijohn.

Hi Barbie. Just add the 8 oz. grape juice to the mixture, and then add enough water until your total volume of wine comes to 4.5 litres. If you click on the little widget in the post that has brewing supplies, you will see a demijohn (big glass jug) there, and you can click to buy it on amazon, or look for it at a brewing supply store. Hope this helps!

Quick question. Do you remove the rhubarb permanently after you add the boiled but cool water ? I would think you would add the rhubarb back to the bucket w some enzyme to help break down the rhubarb further and then leave in bucket till fermentation has completed in the bucket

Hiya – followed your recipe, but when I got to the end of three days and was preparing to add the cooled water and whatnot, my rhubarb was covered in an inch of mold. I had sanitized the heck out of everything, and double washed the rhubarb… my garden has a bit left, but I don’t want it to go the same way as the first batch. Any thoughts?

I would have thought you would have to sterilize the rhubarb itself first by pouring boiling water over it, I’m going to mash the rhubarb slices with a rolling pin end then pour boiling water over and no sugar, cover leave 3 days. Otherwise you are bound to get mould and other microbes from unsterilized rhubarb

Those looking for 5 gal jug’s ? I use water cooler containers that bottled water comes in , they work great
And they are plastic , ( unbreakable ) you can get them from the bottled water co. Cheap.
Thank’s. L.A.

Just made Rhubarb wine from a gallon juice pulp concentrate which was slightly working when I got it. First I heated rhubarb juice to 170 to kill any yeast. Added 5 lbs white sugar syrup and water to 3 gallons. Left covered in SS pot till cool. Transferred to plastic steral lidded with water lock, bucket. Added wine yeast. It worked for 3 weeks. Then racked. (with strain bag) Tasted, sweetness was fine for me so placed in SS lidded bucket with thermometer set at 165 Heated on stove. When alarm went off moved and let it cool in lidded ss pot. Bottled. The result is pasteurized wine that will keep for years.

Having made rhubarb wine before I found some would turn out to be bitter or sweet, but mixed together resolved the taste issue.I have made 5 gallons using your recipe, the fermentation is now in its second month and as yet to clear but I do think it will take a lot longer than the suggested month to start clearing. This now sits along side my 14 gallons of cider. I will let you know how it tastes.

This wine tasted gorgeous, even though there wasn’t a overall taste of rhubarb itself, but was smooth and slightly fruity. I’m now embarking on making 9 gallons. I’m fortunate that my soil grows the best rhubarb this side of the Mississippi

every wine i have made i have always doubled i never make just one gallon it is usulyabout 6 to 8 at a time and i just
treble the ingreedients to what andhow much i make and they have always turned out great and strong i some times buy those little bottles of concentrated of what ever goes with it some times it is just guess work and i have let other people try them and every one has said that they are great and very strong and say they could soon get drunk on them i have given loades away Eileen

Hi there I have a load of rhubarb I have came across this recipe and like the idea of it , but you have no mention of campton tabs and also no use of a hydrometer you say about adding sugar but wont this start up the ferment and cause the bottles to blow if it has not all be used up by the yeast also can you double this recipe by using 2 packs yeast etc thanks 😀

The campden tablet should be added after the fruit has been chopped before adding the sugar and remain for a period of three days. Your hydrometer reading should be taken before adding the yeast. The fermentation that occurs is to get the fuller juice before transferring to the demijohn leaving any dregs behind.
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I don’t keep track of alcohol percentages at this point. I have a hydrometer and they are not too hard to use. I would just do a search on using a hydrometer, and then make that part of your process when you make the wine. The yeast you use will also affect the alcohol levels.

my batches have varied between 5% and 14%….due to the small opps, of not adding enough sugar on the lower content. My percentages are based on hydrometer readings prior to fermenting, based on sugar content and some goofy formula some scientist came up with..but reliable sources said the 14% was fairly accurate due to the amount of fuzzy they felt that evening….

Hi there i have followed this recipe and im at the bottle stage i have added a full 250ml grape concentrate to try and back sweeten the wine as it tastes not nice at all it seems awful strong and quite sour even after the 250mls to backsweet its really not much better , ive bottled it up hoping that it maybe be better in a few months but i reckon it could be heading for the sink…… i was expecting a juicy fruity light wine but that dont seem to be what i have.

I started making the wine for rhubarb wine vinegar…well, the locals like the wine so much I’m fermenting my 3rd 5 gallon batch and only have 3 gallons of vinegar to show for my efforts….to bad I’m allergic to alcohol…so much rhubarb and so little time!!

I found your recipe for rhubarb wine in 2014, had never made wine and wanted to try it because my rhubarb was out of control. It has now become my favorite wine and I can’t keep enough for friends. Even though the wine seems clear it develops sediment and stringy things after bottled. I started more July 2015 bottled it in April 2016 and still have sediment. Any words of wisdom?? I really like that you use natural ingredients.

Hi Mary,
It makes me very happy to hear that you are getting so much mileage out of this recipe! For the sediment, I would recommend racking more often, and maybe leaving more liquid and sediment behind when you do it. You lose some wine this way, but leaving a bigger margin will help with getting a clearer wine. There are also some additives you can use to clear it more, such as pectinase– which is an enzyme that will break down the fruit fibers more. I tend to not use anything but pectinase since I like to keep it simple, but check out this article on using different fining agents: https://winemakermag.com/715-using-fining-agents-techniques

HELP, I sterilsed everything, washed all of the rhubarb throughly before chopping, i have just taken the lid from my bucket to be greeted with some mould on the rhubarb. Does this mean game over or is there a way that i can overcome this?

Hi Diane,
All is not lost! Just strain all of the mold off of the top and carry on. Have you added yeast yet? If not, that is good news– once you introduce the yeast it should overpower the other bacteria.

Thanks for the recipient and instructions. This is my first wine making attempt. I’ve got to the stage where the wine has been in ihe demijohn for a month and I’ve siphoned it into a clean dj. There was nothing much in the air lock(is this a pro?), but it was fizzing… This has now stopped, so I am wondering if I can try a glass yet, or do I need to wait? Hope you can help. Thanks Sharron

[…] Blueberries, pomegranates, black cherries and grapes aren’t the only wine varieties. Sometimes a vegetable will work too. Rhubarb might not be the first thing you”d think of for wine, but this sweet plant is perfect for it. And Here We are has a delicious-sounding, easy-to-follow recipe right here: Rhubarb Wine […]

[…] We enjoyed our Rhubarb Soda this weekend– it was nice and sunny, and we did a lot of work outside. It is rosy, tart and so refreshing– and not to mention the pleasures of drinking something pink. Plus, there is something really exciting about making your own intense carbonation, naturally. That always gives me a thrill. I hope you’ll try making some– it’s really very easy, and you can’t buy anything like it! For more fermented beverage projects, you may want to check out these books: True Brews and Real Food Fermentation. Want to make something a little more grown-up than soda? We love Rhubarb Wine! […]

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Ariana Mullins is an American writer, cook, explorer and photographer. She shares her family's stories of challenge and adventure as expats in Europe, as well as inspiration for living a simple and meaningful life. She has a passion for restoring lost kitchen arts and loves to share her experiences in foraging, butchery, home brewing and anything new she can get her hands on in her Spanish kitchen.

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